Micro Mun Lander

[sal_vager]

Hello all

I thought for my first post I\'d introduce myself with my latest vessel, I like to see what I can do with the fewest and smallest parts.

Have fun with the Micro Mun Lander.

Edit: Just in case you\'re thinking this is some overpowered cheat ship, it has a total thrust at launch of 201, 1 point more than a single standard main engine, and a total fuel payload of 1526, or just over 3 standard tanks, also the capsule has its own engine with a max thrust of 30.

You\'ll need the Down Under Aerospace and party supplies pack if you don\'t already have it as all the extra parts are from there.

It takes a fair bit of care with your flying to keep enough fuel for landing, and you\'ll want to drop the main part of the ship in the last few hundred meters, letting you touch down with the capsule on its own (no landing legs).

Please note, if you change this ship, it\'ll mess up the drop order of the boosters and it relies heavily on that setup in order to reach the Mun, or in fact even to reach orbit, In case you\'re curious, each pair of boosters feed into the next and then into the main tank, this lets you keep each 'stage' fully fueled and still use it\'s engine.

I also have a fully stock ship that uses this system as well, and should get me to the Mun and home on 16 regular tanks, but I have yet to land it without busting my rocket, soon as I\'m sure it works I\'ll upload it as well.

Edit: ( Don\'t read if you want to figure out how to fly this ship yourself )

How I fly her.

Launch at full throttle, the supporting frame and tri-coupler are meant to remain behind.

Watch for the first boosters engines to go dark, jettison.

Pitch to 45 degrees due east, just before the second boosters need to be dropped.

Watch your Apoapsis, when it hits 60k, pitch to 90 degrees east, you\'ll still be around 45k at this point.

Drop the last boosters, then kill the main drive when Apoapsis hits between 70k and 71k.

When you are at about 65k, make another full burn to start raising your Periapsis, cut drive again the moment you get Periapsis out of atmosphere, don\'t worry about rounding your orbit, you can\'t waste the fuel.

You should have one and a half tanks left in the main craft, the Munshot itself is another full power burn and should leave you with almost a full tank remaining.

Once at the Mun, sort out your orbit using low throttle settings and short full bursts, you are looking to have around three quarters fuel left for the deorbit and landing.

Choose your landing site, use mid to high throttle to stop your horizontal speed, descend engine first, low throttle openings are a must at this point.

You have no landing gear, and you cannot land on that pointy engine, you have to kill the drive and jettison the main ship just before landing, the capsule has it\'s own drive with about half the power, a few light bursts will see you safely down with almost all the capsules fuel intact.

Take a few snapshots of the lovely scenery

when you\'re done, throttle up and get into a Munar orbit, take it easy and don\'t waste fuel, you have very little and it has to last you.

Make your TransKerbin burn, aim to just get captured by Kerbins gravity.

Don\'t try to be fancy here, just correct your orbit to bring you down into the atmosphere for aerobraking, you don\'t have enough fuel for anything else.

Jettison the parachute cover while facing away from your course, or it\'ll smash your chute and can even destroy the capsule.

Pop your chute, use a bit of thrust to cushion your landing if you want (if you have the fuel), well done, you made it to the Mun and back in a ship that\'ll fit in your pocket

[IsLeTan4iK]

Hmmmm Good. I like it.

[pauldbk99]

10000 posts later...

Congrats on that milestone by the way!

[sal_vager]

Thanks, that's very kind, but I think this thread also should go back to sleep...